Bring Bri Justice

From the moment Brianna Denison disappeared in January, her family knew something was wrong. They formed a plan to contact as many people as possible, including the media, to help find her. When her body was found, they made it their mission to bring justice to Denison and other local crime victims. "It doesn't matter if she was a pretty, white girl," said her aunt, Lauren Denison. "We don't care if someone is Hispanic or black, or whatever. No one deserves anyone to violate them."That's why Denison's family formed the Bring Bri Justice Foundation, which works for victims' rights, increasing penalties for sexual offenders, getting funding for DNA testing and educating the community on safety awareness.Denison's family said they are grateful for the community's support. "I think Brianna knows what's happening, and I know she's watching over us," Lauren Denison said. "The foundation is about not letting her die in vain and keeping her out there so she can help other victims."For more information, go to bringbriback.blogspot.com

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Eight years ago, veteran Reno police detective David Jenkins answered a cell phone call from the commander of the Washoe County Crime Laboratory.

"It was very covert, and he said to call him from a land line," Jenkins said. "Right away, I knew this wasn't a garden variety thing. He said, 'You're not going to believe it. We got a match.'"

The DNA match solved the 1977 abduction, rape and killing of 6-year-old Lisa Bonham, kidnapped from Idlewild Park by a convicted child molester. Stephen Robert Smith had gone undetected, working at a Reno casino until advances in DNA technology determined that he matched evidence that Jenkins had resubmitted for testing.

Jenkins dialed another number.

Doris Bonham answered. She knew Jenkins had found justice for her daughter.

"It was euphoria," Doris Bonham said from her Martinez, Calif., home. "Finally, we had the answer we've been waiting for. I was imagining the people in the crime lab as windows were popping up on their computers saying they had a match. That must have been very exciting."

Now, Jenkins is the lead detective in Brianna Denison's killing. He hopes this case will be solved, too, when police get the right lead and the right evidence.

"The big break in the case will be an innocuous, garden-variety lead," Jenkins said. "I don't think it's going to be an, 'Oh my God this is the break we're looking for,' but a low priority tip we work that turns out to be the guy.

"I would love very much, if I'm retired or not, and if I'm still kicking and drawing breath, to be there when someone tells Brianna's family who he is."

Jenkins, in the department for more than three decades, is planning to retire in three or four years.

"It was great to be able to play a role in letting (the Bonham) family know who did this terrible thing to their beautiful little girl," he said. "They could finally have a face with the person who did this."

Parallels to Denison case

In the days before Jenkins arrested Smith, officers watched him as they waited to confirm the DNA match. Police showed the Bonhams pictures of Smith, who was a stranger to them.

"It's still hard every time I hear about one of these awful cases because you just relive that day," Doris Bonham said. "You get that anxious feeling again that won't go away."

The murders of Lisa Bonham and Denison have many parallels. Safety awareness grew as the community rallied around the families.

The cases each involved an innocent young person being snatched by serial predators who weren't immediately caught.

And the key to each case is DNA evidence.

"Anger wasn't my first emotion," Doris Bonham said after learning her missing daughter had been murdered. "It was the realization I would never see her again and that our lives would be turned even more upside down."

Looking for a predator

Jenkins' partner on the Smith case, retired detective Jim Duncan, said in 2000 that Smith hunted for victims and placed himself where he would be near young women.

"I don't think he picked his victims. He picked his places," Duncan told a newspaper reporter.

Smith hung around Idlewild Park. Police similarly believe Denison's killer stalked neighborhoods around the university. Evidence shows he had attacked two college students before he killed Denison.

"This guy was actively hunting for an opportunity, not an individual," Jenkins said of Denison's killer. "He has a predator mentality, like Smith."

Doris Bonham said she was confident throughout the years that her daughter's killer would be found after she read a news story about a DNA lab opening. She kept the article with her as a reminder to be hopeful.

"I knew at the time that this DNA, or whatever it was, would be the answer someday," she said. "I think (Brianna's killer) will be caught. He will slip up, and DNA will catch him, too."

"If it hadn't been for DNA, we would go to the grave wondering," she said.

Jenkins said the crimes show that any woman could be a victim.

"It's easy for people to grow tired and bored with the story when it doesn't involve someone you love," he said. "He may not murder again, but he will offend again.

"If it takes 23 years, God I hope not, but eventually we will get him."